Specifics

First edition (English), first printing. Signed in black ink on the half-title page by Klein. Hardcover. Black cloth-covered boards with title stamped in red and white on spine; with photographically illustrated dust jacket. Photographs and text by William Klein. Preface by Maurice Pinguet. 184 pp., with black-and-white gravure plates throughout. 14 x 10-3/8 inches. Out of print. Scarce.

Condition

Near Fine (moderate shelf wear to the bottoms of the boards and waviness and light toning to the extremities of the text block, else Fine), in Very Good+ dust jacket (intact, but with several 1-inch closed tears, creasing to the flaps, wear and toning to the extremities, and foxing to the jacket interior).

Description

From David Campany: "William Klein's lasting legacy to photography will be his four city books: New York (1956), Rome (1959), Tokyo and Moscow (both 1964)....Tokyo is my favourite, not least because it sees Klein returning to the city whose photographic culture he helped to revolutionize. In 1964 Tokyo was the most populous city on earth and the world's media were about to descend to cover the Olympic Games. Three years later James Bond arrived in You Only Live Twice, sealing a popular iconography for Tokyo that barely seems to have changed. Klein's assessment of the city incorporates every Tokyo cliché but in pushing them to breaking point it soars above them too....

...After New York and Rome Klein increased his page size so that when you open up the full-bleed double spreads of Tokyo they are more than half a metre wide. With those dense, complex compositions in your lap you feel like you're up close to a huge mural, not a page...this is where Klein is at his best, achieving the most powerful effects with the most unlikely material. I've no idea why he was in attendance at a meeting of an agricultural committee or how he got so close to the ceiling but his shot through a chandelier of bored bureaucrats in session is such a photographic joy. It is difficult to look at it and not imagine Klein muttering to himself: 'Jeeeesus this is boring! What can I do here? Ah, a chandelier!' ....

...Of all his books it is Tokyo I take down from the shelf most often. It's so rich, so relentlessly inventive that I can never remember it all and find myself constantly surprised. It was published in New York and Tokyo. I've no idea how Tokyo received it. No doubt it was measured against the experience of those who lived there. For the rest who saw it in 1964 I imagine it was seductive, bewildering, breathless, cacophonous, grotesque, gorgeous, informative and very intelligent. It is still."